June 13, 2007

Luke Ravenstahl's Weasel Words

Yesterday on Fred Honsberger's radio show (transcript here), Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said this:

The Jon Delano story is inaccurate simply because I didn't force my way anywhere. I was at Oakmont on April 23rd. I did meet Tiger Woods. But his suggestion that I was asked to leave and not welcome is inaccurate and I really think that's the unfortunate part of the story and I'm not sure where it came from.

This got me thinking. Is that actually what Jon Delano said? That Luke "forced [his] way" into the Country Club? That he was asked to leave? That he was "not welcome" at the Oakmont?

[W]hen the mayor learned that Tiger Woods was out at Oakmont practicing, he had his office call the club to secure an invitation. The club told him politely, but firmly, that this was a private affair, and he was not invited. Nonetheless, the mayor got in his car, drove out, and tried to crash the club.

Sources say Ravenstahl was stopped by Oakmont’s security guards who told him the golf outing was a private event for American Express and its customers. But he talked his way into the club. [emphasis added]

I guess this depends on how you define "force."

And no where (and this is the big part) in the Delano piece is there any mention of the Mayor "was asked to leave."

Luke uses his invitation to lunch as evidence that he was welcome at the club:

[W]hen I walked in literally they invited me to sit down and have lunch. I think that shows you right there that I was welcome...

But Delano points out that he was invited for lunch - adding that the Tiger Woods event was private:

Once inside, Ravenstahl was recognized and invited to dine with members of the club’s board of directors where, once again, he was told the event with Tiger Woods was private and not open to him.

I mean, what were they (the Club's board of directors) supposed to do? Toss the mayor of the city of Pittsburgh out on his ear? Then there's Luke's weasel words:

[B]ut we were never told, at all, that we were not welcome on the grounds. [emphasis added]

Which is different, of course, from saying "we were not welcome at the party."

Looks like Luke knows he's done wrong and is trying to weasel out owning up to it.

4 comments:

Luke's parsing of words until it makes one nearly puke is a surprise? Of course not. He speaks, he parses. They are one and the same.

He apparently learned that at the feet of his mentor ..er, contemporary Bill I-never-had-sex-with-that-woman, Depends-on-what-the-definition-of-is-is Clinton. His life and Bill's life have so many similarities you know.